Contributions to Citizenship by Modern Language Courses in Scientific Literature

Abstract

IRST let me apologize for my temerity in presenting a paper before this group. While I am not a professional linguist I have been studying with Dr. L. E. Hinkle for almost ten years, especially in Germanics, and feel that I am not utterly devoid of some insight into the subject under discussion. I digress here to pay my respects to Dr. Hinkle's scholarly and inspiring teaching. Personally I have no doubt of the vast contributions of courses in scientific literature to good citizenship. We hear a great deal about this being a scientific age, and we are all aware of the manifold contributions of scientific research. One who now selects a scientific career faces enormous competition, and must have as thorough a training as can be obtained. Unless proper consideration is given to courses in scientific literature the handicap will be most embarrassing sooner or later. This is especially important in German, with its peculiar scientific construction and enormous amount of scientific literature. Professor H. B. Hodges once said that he had been struck by the difficulty which students who had studied German two years at Harvard found in reading German scientific journals. Scientific French is no different from other French except for the technical vocabulary which must be acquired in one's special field. I would not minimize the importance of the scientific literature of other modern foreign languages, but at present most courses in scientific literature are limited to French and German.